Personal matters
I seem to have a rather unique and troublesome gift, the ability to discern the worst possible spiritual outcome in a situation. This has caused me great grief over the years giving me the reputation of a stern messenger of difficult news and leading to much rejection. Rarely has the message been discarded outright, but the messenger i.e. ‘ME’ was treated as out of order. The truth is that I do have a tendency to awful-ise situations, projecting my inner traumas in a depressive way that denies God is working for good, not only in ‘ME’ but in all things (Rom 8:28). A transformation in my expectations of life began recently with a fresh revelation of the nature of the glory of God.
A New Vision of Glory
In a pastors meeting last week I received a new insight into the dynamic nature of glory from John 17. Jesus prays, “The glory that you (Father) have given me (Son) I have given to them (apostles), that they may be one even as we are one,” He also intercedes for “for those who will believe in me through their word (i.e. us)” and explains God’s final purpose is “that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:22, 20, 21). At the heart of glory is succession; a passing on of the indwelling life of God from Father to Son to apostles to us and out to the world. The onward flow of life from one person to another is the essence of the glory of God which we are called to share. God’s plan for humanity and the true disposition of our lives are always forward looking and never despairing, this is the power of the good news Christ came to bring.
Glory for Us
The glory with which we were created as children of God (Isa 43:7; Luke 3:38) was to believe in God’s promises for a better future, despite the painful limitations of the present. A true son of God always trusts that their Father in heaven has something better for them, and believes that such hope will never be disappointed (Rom 5:5). At the heart of such faith is a conviction that God has prepared future blessings for us that make all our present struggles meaningful; “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom 8:18). Such a future oriented vision of life is a vision of glory that drives out depression and despair.
This means that the negativity which plagues our daily lives flows from a rejection of God’s offer of his own all – sufficient life. Such pessimism is sin, because it is a falling away from the glory and goodness that the LORD purposes for us in all life’s trials (Rom 3:23). Day by day we feel and act like there is no divine life –giving promise that can break the chains of the things that weigh upon us. We lose sight of Jesus deep desire to pass on to us the Father’s glory in even the worst of times.
We are all so habituated to complaining, dissatisfaction and discontent that we cannot see what we are doing unless the ‘ME’ at the centre of life is illuminated from the outside. Only Jesus can reveal our true nature to us, because only Jesus knows what it is like to both lose and regain the glory of God.
The Glory of the Son
In his daily life and ministry Jesus was never depressive because he always saw what his Father was doing (John 5:19-20). The fullness of the life of the Father was always being poured into the Son (John 1:16), this was a passing on of glory. To constantly receive from the Father filled Christ with a sense of the all-sufficiency of God’s plan whatever befell him. The one exception to this transmission of divine presence is the saving power of the cross.
The great crisis of the cross, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 14:34; 15:34), is not the cry of a ‘ME’ discontented with the will of God, but the Son’s awareness of being cut off from the glory of the Father. For as Jesus bears our sin he has no sense of receiving from the life of the Father – he does not know what his Father is doing, saying or feeling! A bare memory of the great promises of salvation remains, but Christ’s heart is stripped bare of the Spirit’s leading forward into the hope-filled future of God. There is no sense of the passing on of glory. Yet under such conditions of absolute emptiness Jesus offers up his all for us and destroys sins power to deny us a hope-filled future. Resurrection means that every promise that the Father ever had for his sons now fills the glorified life of the Son.
Pass on the Glory
God is raising up a pipeline of glory through which his Fatherly life can flow through Jesus to us in the power of the Spirit and release hope to others. The traumatic and naturally depressing circumstances of life, offered up to the Lord for the good of others is the channel to their glory in Christ (Eph 3:13).
I see a new generation of spiritual fathers/mothers rising up who by their life testimony will pass on to spiritually younger ones a deep sense of worthiness. Not the worthiness of a prideful spirit, but of sharing in the fullness of Jesus’ Spirit of death-and-resurrection. A revival of spiritual succession is underway, of passing on the baton in God that will undo the curse of fatherlessness under which this nation groans and will launch a new generation willing to serve Jesus as holy disciples at any cost because they are inspired by the hope-filled promises of God (Mal 4:5-6; Ps 110:1-3). This will be the generation who will have been taught by older believers the succession of knowing what God is saying and doing. Such is the passing on of glory to which we are all called.
The scroll in the hand of the Lamb at the right hand of God is open to us to read by faith (Rev 5:1-6). Ours is the limitless honour seeing of seeing the future plans and promises of our Father. This great eschatological vision of what God has prepared for us will propel the Church to “make herself ready” (1 Cor 2:9-10; Rev 19:7) for the final consummation of all things.
Conclusion
As a solitary ‘ME’ I often find myself subject to temptation and depression because of the many difficult experiences of life. Only a vision of the glorious hope which God has promised to impart through all things can stop me from awful-ising the painful circumstances of present existence. Jesus is gradually opening my eyes to see that every painful circumstance is contained within the plan of the Father who is preparing a wonderful future for ‘ME’ beyond all imaginings. As I grow in my acceptance of this reality I am more and more motivated to pass on to spiritually younger people what the Lord has taught me. Such a passing on of the baton of life experience is the essence of the glory of God and the reason for which we were created. May the Lord grant us all to be captured by this vision and to be part of the release of a new generation of authentic disciples in our land.